You’ve Been Promoted–Now Get to Work

It’s been three years since you set your sights on this job, and now you’ve got it. You can still feel the glow of triumph.

Savor that glow, by all means, but resist the urge to rest on your laurels. With your new rank comes a new set of expectations, requiring a new set of competencies. In The Next Level: What Insiders Know About Executive Success (Davies-Black, 2006), former senior HR executive Scott Eblin says that most managers find moving up to the executive level “among the most difficult transitions of their careers, because the expectations are really high, but they’re not very clearly stated.” What’s more, he says, newly promoted executives tend to fall back on practices that no longer serve their interests. The combination can spell disaster.

Drawing on his experience as an HR executive and executive coach, as well as interviews he conducted with more than 30 successful senior managers, Eblin wrote The Next Level to provide novice executives with a road map to help them navigate unfamiliar terrain. In a conversation with HMU, he distilled the book’s advice into four practices that can help you succeed in the role you worked so hard to reach. 1. Communicate strategically

At the executive level, not only is communication a much bigger part of your job, but your words also carry more weight. Every time you communicate, Eblin says, do so with a specific outcome in mind. For instance, when you walk into a meeting, know exactly what you want your target audience to think, know, and do. Eblin offers these other suggestions for communicating effectively with different target audiences:

• Everyone throughout the organization. In your new role, you’re in the spotlight; a negative comment, even if lightly made, could really come back to bite you. So watch what you say, without losing the ability to connect spontaneously with people. One executive Eblin interviewed, Martin Carter, president of Hydro Aluminum North America (Baltimore), described the challenge as follows: “You have to be very deliberate in communication… It’s not that you can’t be informal and relaxed, but you have to remember that what you say tends to be quoted in the organization.”

• Your boss. Face time with your boss is likely to diminish at the next level. Make sure you understand what information or action your boss needs from you to further her agenda, and accommodate her communication preferences. For instance, does she prefer e-mail for some types of messages but voicemail for others?

• The CEO, any other executives above you, and your executive peers. Prepare your elevator speech so you can produce a crisp answer when another executive asks what you’re working on. Keep communications short and to the point. When giving presentations, focus on the what, not the how, to avoid getting mired in detail. (But make sure you have a sufficient handle on the how in case you’re asked.) Finally, in discussions, pose open-ended questions so you can learn what’s most important to other senior leaders.

2. Rely on your team

Before you reached the executive level, you earned a reputation for excellence in your functional role. As an executive, you may still be accountable for your function at the same time that you have a host of new responsibilities requiring 50% or more of your time and attention.

As you move up to the next level, your team will have to as well; you need them to pick up functional work that you can’t do anymore. Helping them move up means trusting them more and giving them more responsibility, two things that many newly minted executives find difficult to do. The result? They actually impede their team’s progress at the very moment they need their team more than ever, says Eblin.

Get the right people in place. “In any organization, the leader is only going to be as successful as the people being led,” writes Eblin. Find the people who can keep pace and whose knowledge surpasses your own–even if this means replacing some of the people you already have.

Build bench strength. A new executive once told Eblin that one person on her team was absolutely indispensable. Coached to think through the implications of her deep dependence on that person, she focused building other team members’ competencies so that the continued success of the team did not hinge on a single person.

Define the what, and let your team determine how. Accept that there are many different ways to get the job done. While you may know your discipline better than most, resist the urge to tell your team members how to do their jobs. Instead, use your new executive-level insight to shape your team’s direction. Be crystal clear on the big picture and what your people must achieve and then let them make it happen.

Hold yourself accountable, not responsible. Eblin likens this distinction to the difference between cutting your own grass and owning a lawn-care service that mows 100 yards a week. “There is no way that you as an individual can be responsible for cutting that many yards each week,” Eblin says. “Those yards are the responsibility of your employees. As the owner, you are, however, accountable to all your customers for the results. It’s the same dynamic when you’re an executive in an organization.”

To enable you to back away from the details — and still catch problems early on — put systems in place to monitor progress, for instance, weekly or biweekly check-ins with project or team leaders. If the number of initiatives under way in your function is so large that one-on-ones of this sort would eat up too much of your time, sit down with project leaders to establish standard metrics that they can use to create a project dashboard. Have them send you updates regularly. When all’s green, everyone carries on with what they’re doing. But at the appearance of yellow or red, then it’s time for some focused discussions to get the initiative that’s in trouble back on track.

3. Focus on peer relationships

Side-to-side relationships now trump up-and-down ones, and the ability to influence and persuade peers is critical. Start by establishing your credibility with your executive peers and building their trust by looking for ways to cooperate and collaborate with them. Follow through on your commitments. Share information and ideas. And if you respond to a request, don’t be afraid to make a request in return. These relationships should be reciprocal.

Of course, you’ll still want to spend some time looking up and down the corporate hierarchy. You need to understand what senior management wants you to do and to stay connected with those below the executive level. But don’t get stuck in that vertical tunnel and overlook the people, networks, and connections on your left and right that will largely determine your success.

4. Think even bigger

Until now, you’ve been putting your function first. However, as a member of the leadership team, the company must come first, your function second. This may mean making sacrifices– such as financial resources or top performers–for the good of the organization. And as you broaden your field of vision, make sure you think regularly about “them”–the competition. Use your position as a fresh new voice to challenge your colleagues’ thinking. And scan the marketplace for new ideas you can bring back to the team.

* * * *

Sidebar: You’re in the Spotlight

Like it or not, the moment you reach the executive level, you are onstage. Your peers, your superiors, and your subordinates have their eyes trained on you and will take note of any stumbles. To deliver a winning performance:

• Think before you speak. Anticipate the effects of your words.

• Watch your sense of humor. Avoid making light of sensitive issues such as downsizing or changes to pay and benefits. And be especially mindful of jokes or witticisms that could offend; the more power you have, the more sensitive others will be to any perceived abuse of it.

• Be genuine. Insincerity is all the more glaring in the spotlight. Sure, there will be times where you have to hold back details for any number of reasons. But if you acknowledge this, people will understand–and they’ll respect you for your honesty.

Cynthia Morrison Phoel is a Boston-based freelance writer. This article appeared in the February 2007 issue of Harvard Management Update.

Partner Center

The email and password entered aren’t matching to our records. Please try again, or reset your password. If you have a username from our previous site, start by using that. Please See our FAQ for more.

If you are signing in for the first time on the new HBR.org but have an existing account, please enter your existing user name and password to migrate your account.Please see Frequently Asked Questions for more information.